Author | Yun Peng, Cheng Qian
Edit | Desert Shadow
Zhidong reported on September 10 that at 1 a.m. Beijing time today, another Apple Spring Festival Gala officially opened.
The familiar Cook, the familiar Apple Park, and the different new iPhone colors.
This year's new color scheme is directly "ugly on the hot search"......
▲In the early morning of September 10, the hot search list before and after the end of Apple's press conference
▲iPhone 16 series standard version color
▲ iPhone 16 Pro's new color scheme of desert gold
In fact, the color scheme of the iPhone 16 Pro series has not changed much, and the added desert gold, according to past experience, is likely to be a popular color. The point of contention among netizens is that on the standard version of the iPhone 16, its color is more "thick" and more saturated than the previous generation.
So netizens have more associations, crystal plastic slippers with color matching, and autumn pants...... In short, some are outrageous and some are out of control.
Aside from the color scheme, let's take a look at the phone itself, speaking of the Apple iPhone 16, this time everyone must be most concerned about AI.
When Apple Smart will support Chinese, Apple has finally given time: next year.
If you want to say that the biggest highlight of the whole press conference, it may really be a newly added "camera control button".
You can directly start the AI photo search with one click:
Shoot a 4K 120FPS cinematic slow-motion blockbuster with a single click:
Slide the button to directly adjust the photo parameters:
Good guys, Sony's camera buttons, Samsung's AI search, Cook, you've learned it all.
However, one thing to say, Apple's operating experience does look smoother and more functional. Compared with the traditional camera shutter button, this button has two levels of light press and heavy press, and adds touch tap and swipe operation, making it more playable.
In terms of product upgrades, it is not known if this is an exaggeration to say that Apple is the undoubted "master of material technology and color matching".
But this is the truth, Apple Watch and AirPods have "changing the color that is new" this time, and today's Weibo hot search, the attention of the new machine color matching is still far ahead.
In Cook's words, it was a "day full of surprises"!
Returning to the protagonist iPhone, Cook said that this year's new iPhone is "completely built" for Apple's intelligence, and the importance of AI is beyond doubt.
But you're going to say what new AI features we're seeing today? There are not many, most of them are the landing applications of Apple Smart at WWDC in June.
In terms of chips, iPhone 16 has been directly upgraded to A18 across generations, and the Pro version has been upgraded to A18 Pro, this year both chips have used the second-generation 3nm process, and the strongest mobile phone chip on the surface should be no dispute, every year.
For a more detailed interpretation of Apple's A18, A18 Pro, and S10 SiP chips, please move to Core Things (Apple's four chips exploded in the middle of the night!) The strongest 3nm came out, and the cheapest iPhone 16 can also be used).
In terms of other products, the Apple Watch Series 10 is equipped with the largest screen and the thinnest body in the history of the series, and this screen is even larger than its own Ultra, which is somewhat "anti-heavenly".
In order to make it thinner, the extreme stacking design inside the fuselage can be called another "engineering miracle", and the rest of the health and sports aspects are more routine upgrades.
AirPods 4 has launched an active noise cancellation version, which is on par with the Pro series, but the price is 400 yuan more expensive. AirPods Max has finally ushered in an upgrade after many years...... More colors and a change to the C-port.
Overall, the gap between the Pro version and the non-Pro version of Apple's headphones and watch product lines is further narrowing, but this is not in line with Cook's consistent knife method, Cook has always wanted to widen the gap and stimulate consumers to buy Pro. Is it really a "lack of innovation" that makes it difficult to take the lead in the Pro version?
In terms of price, this time, except for headphones that support active noise cancellation, mobile phones and watches have not risen a penny, which is really surprising for Apple, where the price of the top iPhone has reached record highs.
▲Comparison of the configuration and price of the iPhone 16 standard and Plus versions with the previous generation
▲iPhone 16 Pro、Pro Max版与上代的配置、价格对比
What are the specific details of today's three new products, and what are the key features and experiences worth paying attention to behind them, Zhidong will take you to see them all.
First, the iPhone 16 uses A18, "thoroughly" for Apple intelligence to build, AI Chinese support next year
After 40 minutes of the launch, the iPhone 16 series is finally here.
Cook specifically emphasized that Apple has put large models into the core of the iPhone, and the new generation of iPhones is "completely built" for Apple intelligence.
In order to run Apple's intelligence, Apple has upgraded the standard version of the chip this time, or "leapfrogging", directly upgrading from A16 to A18 chip, doubling the performance of the neural network engine, and increasing the memory bandwidth by 17%, all of which are crucial to AI functions.
As for the A18's CPU, Apple's description is that "this CPU is so fast that it has no rivals, and it can even compete with desktop CPUs". The GPU is strong enough to play triple-A titles, such as Assassin's Creed: Mirage.
With such a strong chip, what kind of AI experience can it achieve?
Apple uses "both understanding you and protecting privacy" when describing AI, and I have to say that this is really more and more similar to the statements of domestic Android manufacturers.
In fact, not only Apple's iPhone, but also the signboard of AI mobile phones, the head mobile phone manufacturers are grabbing, and recently Honor CEO Zhao Ming also shouted at Apple at the overseas press conference, saying that it is necessary to use the open agent ecology to break Apple's closed ecology, and Glory's AI agent will be ahead of Apple's landing mobile phone.
Just after the Apple press conference, Guo Rui, CMO of Honor, also said in the circle of friends that the AI agent does not need to wait for Apple to learn Chinese, do you feel the smell of gunpowder?
Apple emphasized at the press conference that these device-side models are self-developed by Apple and optimized for daily scenarios, followed by Apple listing some applications.
Writing tools are no strangers to turning notes into invitations and polishing your upcoming comments in an instant.
The image tool allows you to create a meme pack by entering prompts.
There are also common functions such as AI image search and AI elimination.
Overall, what can Apple Smart do on the iPhone 16? In a word, most of the AI functions that Apple demonstrated at WWDC in June can be implemented.
Siri, the smart assistant, is powerful enough to help you delete duplicate photos in your photo albums...... Of course, it can also help you send photos of your barbecue on Saturday to your friends, open the movie your wife sent you yesterday, and have more complex operations and smoother conversations.
What everyone is most concerned about is when Apple Smart will support Chinese, and Apple has finally given time: next year.
The camera control button in the revelation is really here, and through this button we can directly adjust the camera parameters.
The combination of camera control buttons and AI has given birth to a new way to play, walking on the street, you only need to press what you want to know, and the AI can search for you, which Apple calls a visual intelligence function.
I have to say,This is exactly the same as the photo search function launched by Samsung not long ago,I didn't expect Apple to "learn" so "pixel-level" this time,Of course,Apple's experience does seem to be smoother。
▲Samsung's AI photo search function also supports real-time translation of photos
There are also some new uses for this camera control button, such as quick triggers for small functions.
In terms of camera hardware, the iPhone 16's main camera has been upgraded to 48 million pixels, which is on par with the previous generation Pro, and the light intake of the 2x telephoto has been increased by 1.6 times.
The other ultra-wide-angle lens has a larger amount of light, a larger single-pixel size, and Super Macro support.
Oh yes, spatial video shooting is also supported on the iPhone 16 this time.
In terms of appearance, the camera arrangement of the iPhone 16 has been changed to a vertical arrangement as reported, and the screen durability and realistic effect of the iPhone 16 have been further improved, and Action Button has also been installed to keep up with the army.
2. The Pro version continues to strengthen its professional audio-visual creation capabilities, with the largest screen size in history
Next, take a look at the iPhone 16 Pro and Pro Max, two high-end models.
As mentioned in the leaks, the Pro Max has been replaced with the largest 6.9-inch screen in history, the thickness has been further reduced, and the battery capacity has been increased.
Cook said that the Pro version can implement a range of unique AI features, so how will the AI experience on the Pro be different?
Before talking about this, Apple first sold a pass, starting with chips.
Both Pro models have been upgraded to the A18 Pro, and in terms of performance, the CPU, GPU, and NPU are more powerful and consume less power, but this is a routine upgrade.
The A18 Pro's new 16-core neural engine can perform 35 trillion operations per second (the same as the previous generation A17 Pro). New enhancements to the GPU architecture deliver up to 2x the performance of hardware-accelerated ray tracing.
But after introducing the chip, Apple directly began to introduce photography, and did not specifically point out what unique AI functions the Pro version can have.
Maybe Apple's end-to-end model is optimized too well, and it can run smoothly with both A18 and A18 Pro?
In terms of photography, this time the iPhone 16 Pro's main camera and ultra-wide angle are still 48 million pixels, and the periscope telephoto, which was only available in the previous generation Pro Max, is also placed on the Pro this time.
Apple has spent a lot of time this time talking about the upgrade of the color and style of the photo image, of course, AI is more or less used behind these image processing.
But then again, the photography of flagship phones has really entered the stage of "style war", and Apple is no exception.
In terms of video shooting, which Apple is best at, the Pro version supports 4K 120FPS cinematic slow-motion shooting, which can bring a good fresh shooting experience, which should be a big boon for many professional video workers. This feature also supports HDR, which can be said to be full of image quality.
In addition to being able to shoot at 4K 120FPS, the Pro/Pro Max can choose the playback speed when playing back 120FPS videos, especially the slow-motion playback with a minimum of 24 fps, which is also a very novel experience.
At present, many Android image flagships have supported 8K video recording, obviously Apple has chosen a different direction, not chasing 8K video resolution, but increasing the shooting frame rate at 4K resolution.
In terms of audio, the Pro version also offers some new features for professional music creation and editing.
Overall, Apple's positioning of the Pro iPhone is more like a professional video creation device.
3. The standard version screen is larger than Ultra, half the price is cheaper, and the Ultra color scheme is updated
To summarize the biggest update point of the Apple Watch Series 10 with three key words, it is lighter, thinner, with a larger screen and faster charging.
The Series 10's display is even larger than the Apple Watch Ultra, which measures about 1.93 inches, which is good news for users who are used to casually lifting the watch to type information.
In addition, the Series 10 uses the first wide-viewing angle OLED screen, which increases the viewing brightness by 40% at the tilt angle, even if you raise your hand while walking, put it on the table to see the screen content clearly, and the display will be updated every second in the all-weather display mode.
Seeing this, you may be worried about battery life. The total battery life of the Series 10 is 18 hours, and one of the updates this time is that the charge is faster, the watch can be charged to 80% in only 30 minutes, and it can be charged in a neutral mode, which can be regarded as a "curve save battery life".
Does a bigger screen mean the watch is heavier? On the contrary, the Series 10 is Apple's thinnest Apple Watch to date, with a thickness of 9.7mm, and Apple has redesigned the speaker system inside the watch.
The Apple Watch uses Apple's customized new generation S10 SiP chip, which combines performance, energy efficiency and intelligence. Based on the Transformer model, the S10 can more accurately complete functions such as dictation, car crash, and fall detection, and the translation app has also landed on the Apple Watch for the first time.
Health and fitness features are also the most concerned by most users right now, but judging from this release, the upgrade is not very strong.
The Series 10 adds sleep apnea, which allows the watch to detect "breathing disorders" and analyzes the user's breathing disorder data every 30 days to warn users of moderate and severe apnea.
In terms of fitness, the Series 10 focuses on wading sports this time, with water temperature, water depth, and tide functions, providing a variety of data for swimming, rafting and other enthusiasts.
The watch is made of two materials, namely aluminum and titanium, aluminum metal has three colors: black, rose gold, and silver, and titanium is primary color, gold, and slate color. The starting price of the Series 10 is 2999 yuan, and pre-orders will be accepted at 9 o'clock on September 11 and will be on sale on September 20.
Let's take a look at the Apple Watch Ultra series, unfortunately, it is still the second generation. The Ultra series has proven its capabilities in terms of battery life and GPS accuracy, with the watch detecting heart rate and pace while running, distance, speed, and heart rate metrics when riding, automatic swimming style detection while swimming, and more.
But this update is only in the color scheme - satin texture black.
The updated Apple Watch Ultra 2 starts at 6499 yuan, and pre-orders are available for pre-order from today and will be released on September 20.
Fourth, the active noise cancellation version of AirPods 4 is here, and the price has increased by 400 yuan
In this autumn press conference, the AirPods series talked about 4 headphones, but the introduction took only 13 minutes.
The regular AirPods 4 isn't the main event this time.
AirPods 4 are powered by the H2 chip, which enhances hands-free calling based on machine learning, so you can interact with Siri with a yes or no just no.
There is also the same 30 hours of total TV battery life as the previous generation, USB-C interface......
重头戏来了，AirPods 4的新机型——“低配版AirPods Pro”，拥有主动降噪的AirPods。
The Pro series' transparency mode, adaptive audio, and conversational awareness functions have been moved to the AirPods in one go. The non-in-ear AirPods have a transparency mode, which allows you to naturally hear the surrounding sound while wearing the headphones, and can automatically reduce the noise according to the changes in the environment.
The price of the active noise cancellation version of AirPods 4 has also risen, with a starting price of 1399 yuan, and the price of the ordinary version of AirPods 4 is 999 yuan.
The AirPods Max, the "oldest" AirPods series, have finally been updated (albeit minimally) with a USB-C port and a few new colors.
The price of AirPods Max has not changed, it is still 3999 yuan, pre-order is open today, and it will be on sale on September 20.
The new feature added by AirPods Pro is the Health feature, which helps users prevent, recognize, and assist in the detection of hearing loss, and can also act as your personal hearing aid. Hearing tests and hearing aid features will be available in more than 100 countries and territories around the world this fall.
Conclusion: Apple's innovation is slow, and Android AI is speeding up
Although Apple's autumn conference looks a little "Buddhist", Apple's opponents are very active, and the iteration of products and technologies is very rapid, such as Huawei's folding screen has come out of the "three folds", which has caused widespread heated discussions in the industry, and the price of scalpers on the third-party platform has increased by more than 100,000 yuan. On the other hand, the CEO of Honor also shouted to Apple to use an open ecological agent to break Apple's closure.
Apple's new product release this time is more about moving steadily and slowly, making the overall experience of the product better, such as a larger screen, thinner and lighter body, longer battery life, faster charging, and smoother use of AI functions. These are all very practical upgrades, but they are naturally less eye-catching.
Overall, Apple's products and technologies are still undisputed to show the industry's top level, but in the key battle of AI mobile phones, Apple is not playing beautifully, and the progress of AI functions has fallen far behind the Android camp.
Past iPhone Reviews: